The Kirk

Stoer Parliamentary Church

Built to a design by the renowned engineer Thomas Telford, Stoer Church was one of 32 so called Parliamentary churches, financed by Westminster as a result of the Church of Scotland Act 1824, enacted to enable the building of more places of worship in the Highlands. Now a ruin after losing its roof in 1970 the last internment in the graveyard which surrounds the kirk is thought to have been in 1963.

The Church of Scotland became the established church after the reformation of 1560. Essentially a Calvinist church it was subject to various attempts to impose episcopacy until the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the re-establishment of Presbyterianism the following year. During the second half of the 18th century an evangelical movement started to grow within the church in response to the perceived influence of the Enlightenment on the moderate faction. This culminated in the Disruption of 1843 where about a third of the clergy and congregation split to form the Free Church of Scotland. Although the split was based mainly on doctrinal issues debated in the Lowlands, the Free Kirk grew rapidly in the Highlands and Islands. The new kirk was generally more sympathetic to Gaelic language and culture and importantly the congregation was responsible for the choice of minister rather than the landlords as had become usual with the Church of Scotland.

Whilst all the existing assets and buildings were retained by the established church, within a few years the Free Church had established a large fund which enabled them to construct new church buildings, schools and ecclesiastical colleges. In Assynt, Free Church buildings were established at Clashnessie and Torbreck (later Lochinver). Since then and still ongoing there have been further schisms and reunions which explains the presence of churches representing multiple denominations in the same relatively small communities.